EDITORIAL: The winners and losers on the Alaska red carpet this year

Here in Alaska, we celebrate the end of the year as a time when the light starts to return, but elsewhere, it heralds the beginning of award season — that annual ritual of indulgent back-patting and self-congratulation. Our state shouldn’t have to miss out on that fun, so here’s a list of tongue-in-cheek “awards” for Alaska this year.

Green Shoots Award: Downtown Anchorage. For years and even decades, the city’s downtown has felt like it was experiencing a gradual hollowing-out, transitioning from a destination to a place deliberately avoided by many visitors and residents. But lately, there have been signs of growth from the neglected city core. New buildings, such as the revamped Key Bank Plaza, as well as a pair of housing and commercial developments backed by political figures on both sides of the aisle, look to bring both business and much-needed residential space to Downtown. And increased arts and culture offerings — such as the Broadway in Alaska theater offerings at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts and summer concerts at the Anchorage Museum and Town Square Park — have been luring folks back into an area whose success is vital to the overall health of the city.

Ostrich Award: Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the Alaska Legislature. For the umpteenth year in a row, the governor and legislators had every opportunity to sit down together and hammer out a fiscal plan — and even some conceptual agreement about what would be necessary to make it happen. And yet, for the umpteenth year in a row, they didn’t do it. Instead, they punted the matter to an election year, and if every other election year in the past decade has been any indication, there will be very little appetite for the tough conversations necessary to fix Alaska’s structural budget problems in 2024. We’ll be lucky if they don’t spend the entire constitutional budget reserve on a big Permanent Fund dividend and call it a day.

Phoenix Award: Alaska tourism. After a scary few years during the pandemic, the state’s signature summer industry came roaring back, with cruise numbers in particular hitting new highs. That made for a bright spot in the state’s economic picture, and given the long decline of oil revenue, it’s one we desperately need. Alaska’s tourism industry is the backbone of the summer economy, contributing to local communities and supporting thousands of local families. Let’s hope 2024 finds even more folks checking a visit to Alaska off their bucket lists.

Worst Legislator Award: Attorney General Treg Taylor. Alaska’s head of the Department of Law isn’t supposed to have legislative powers, but he’s been plenty happy to act like he does. He has issued several interpretations of existing laws that — coincidentally, of course — happen to align with his and Dunleavy’s agenda on social issues, and even in some cases with law changes the administration has tried and failed to make via the legislative process. We’re on our third attorney general in five years after the first two resigned in disgrace; is it too much to ask that we have one who just does the job and doesn’t fancy himself an unelected lawmaker?

Holiday Spirit Award: Snowzilla. The gargantuan, beloved snowman returned to Anchorage’s Airport Heights neighborhood this year, and there was much rejoicing. And so far, there hasn’t been any of the griping from upset neighbors or municipal code-enforcement officials that led to Snowzilla’s prior decade-long hiatus. Could it be that this year, everyone silently decided that we all need something to be positive about at Christmas time?

NIMBY Award: Girdwood’s “Halt Holtan Hills” movement. As we’ve seen elsewhere, everyone seems to want solutions to commonly acknowledged problems — until the proposed solutions to those problems are just over the fence line and affecting the “viewshed.” Thus residents try to put the kibosh on anything that doesn’t comport with what they see as the iconic character of the neighborhood, and the problem gets worse. Lather, rinse, repeat. It didn’t help that Halt Holtan Hills organizers, according to documents compiled by the Alaska Landmine blog, used scare tactics and misleading claims to get other Anchorage community councils to join in opposition to the housing development. But Holtan Hills may get another shot at Assembly approval in January, and new years are all about second chances.

Alaska Icon Award: The white raven. Despite deep snow, rough roads, and the generally hair-on-fire state of the world today, one leucistic corvid has helped keep Alaskans sane and given us a pint-sized spectacle to look out for as we make our way across town. Whether or not you believe the melanin-deprived bird is a fortuitous omen, it’s indisputably cool — and isn’t it time we honored it and its darker-feathered brethren by recognizing them as our state bird?